Thanksgiving is all about food, family and giving thanks for little things like pumpkin spice lattes, college Thursdays at Cruze and Cher’s Twitter feed. In the spirit of giving, here are six deliciously gay tidbits about turkey day. Feel free to bring these up at the dinner table!
1. Gay Santas!
In 2003, Broadway performer and playwright Harvey Fierstein, best known for his Tony award winning dragtastic play, Torch Song Trilogy, wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times in which he said he would dress in drag as Mrs. Claus during that year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The piece ignited controversy and prompted the department store to release a statement clarifying Fierstein’s remarks: “The Parade has never and will never be a platform for political and social issues and opinions. Its mission is to spread joy as well as to kick off the holiday season.”
2. Gay Parades!
There was no shortage of queens in the 2011 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The year featured a performance by the cast of the Broadway musical Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, a show which celebrates the art of drag performance.
3. Gay Compacts!
Although Plymouth Rock gets street cred for being the birthplace of the first Thanksgiving, the Mayflower Compact – the document which started it all – was signed in Provincetown, Mass., the popular gay resort town on Cape Cod.
4. Gay Pilgrims!
According to a 2009 Boston.com article, in 1637 John Alexander and Thomas Roberts, a gay couple, were convicted of crimes against morality simply because of their same-sex relationship. Alexander was banished, but at least P-Town wasn’t too far away!
5. Gay Dinners!
Picture Norman Rockwell’s refined, heteronormative portrait of the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. Now imagine one of the guests standing up to affirm that he indeed is gay. A 2012 gaydating. com poll revealed that 55% of its users planned to come out to their families during their Thanksgiving feasts. Will you ruffle some turkey feathers this year by coming out loud and proud?
6. Last, but not least, Gay Turkeys!
If Uncle Charlie confronts you with skepticism as to whether or not your gay relationship goes against nature this Thanksgiving, tell him to look no further than his own plate! After all, turkeys, among other species of birds, have been found to exhibit homosexual behavior! If he can pardon that warm, tender goodness for Thanksgiving, why can’t he accept you?
